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Newtown Parent to Give White House Address

The mother of a Newtown, Conn., shooting victim will deliver the weekly White House address in President Obama’s place, his spokesman said on Friday.

In a video message to be released on Saturday morning, Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son, Ben, was killed during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, will make an appeal for gun control legislation as the Senate prepares to debate a set of proposals next week.

“One thing that has been very clear is that nobody has a more important or powerful perspective on the issue than the families who have lost loved ones because of the scourge of gun violence,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said during his news briefing on Friday. “As you know, the president has been in regular contact this week with the families of victims of the 12/14 shootings, and he believes their voices and resolve have been critical to the continued progress we’ve seen in the Senate.”

Mr. Carney said that this was the first time in the Obama administration that someone other than the president or Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had delivered the weekly address. But the idea of inviting a nonpolitician affected by a policy to give the speech is not new. In May 2004, for example, Democrats invited Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq war veteran, to give their response to President George W. Bush’s weekly address.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…